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Event: The Crisis in Climate Coverage

For too long media outlets have treated climate change like a policy debate with two equal and opposing sides, even as the vast weight of science has stacked up on one side of the debate. This tendency to equate unequal arguments, to validate inaccuracies and spin, has undoubtedly slowed much-needed progress toward both broader awareness and better policies.

It’s critical to have a conversation about the direction climate coverage is headed in. Work on the Keystone XL pipeline is continuing even while the environmentally sensitive route is being contested. Fracking efforts are expanding across the U.S., and oil drilling is on the rise.

On a more positive note, President Obama made climate change a central piece of his inaugural address, and environmental activists are planning to converge on Washington, D.C. at the end of February to demand action. How will these events be covered? Whose voices and stories will be heard?

Earlier this month, the New York Times caused a stir when it announced it was dismantling its climate-reporting desk in favor of integrating climate reporting across the newspaper’s diverse beats. This sparked a debate about how best to cover the complex and interwoven issues that make up our climate crisis. And Bill Moyers’ recent interview with Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, illustrated the ways the media have failed to drive home the gravity of the environmental challenges we face.

But the forecast isn't all doom and gloom. Longtime leaders in environmental journalism like Orion and Mother Jones continue to provide essential climate coverage, vibrant experiments like the Climate Desk Collaboration are expanding newsroom capacity for this work and online niche publications like Grist and Environmental Health News are breaking important stories.

The event Free Press and Orion are hosting on Feb. 14 will build on this progress. We'll be drawing on lessons from what is working and creating space for new ideas.

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